NASW News

Dorothy I. Height will be presented with the 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award. NASW will honor its 2009 National Awards recipients April 23 at a ceremony in Washington. The awards — Lifetime Achievement Award, Social Worker of the Year, Public Elected Official of the Year and Public Citizen of the Year — honor social workers and others who have, through their work or advocacy, advanced the principles and vision of the profession. “The recipients of our 2009 National Awards have made inestimable contributions to the field of social work, and in doing so have alleviated suffering, advanced freedom, promoted equality under...

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This month, the 2010 Social Work Congress convenes in Washington to outline our profession’s challenges and opportunities, and to chart a course to better serve our constituency. Faced with the enormous social and economic upheaval in our country and its devastating impact on the underrepresented, a key focus of this event will be to encourage leaders — from those who are new to the profession to mid-career professionals and fully seasoned social workers — to step up and be heard. By blending experience with innovation, we can work to advance the profession and secure a better future for others. Essential to our mission is ...

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NASW President James J. Kelly (right, gesturing) and Luisa Lopez, NASW director for human rights and international affairs, were in Tanzania in December to help social workers develop strategies for strengthening leadership, building membership and increasing revenues. “Tanzanian social work professionals, together for a three-day strategic planning session, welcomed us with enthusiasm and warmth,” Kelly said. “The Institute of Social Work in Tanzania and American Health International Alliance made it possible for us to assist NASW member Dr. Nathan Linsk in providing consultation to revitalize the Tanzanian social work prof...

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“Social Workers Inspire Community Action” is the theme for this year’s National Professional Social Work Month, celebrated each March. NASW is leading the way with the release of several new resources social workers can use to call attention to the inspiring work they’re doing in their communities and attract more people to the profession. Among the new resources is a revamped and repurposed “Be A Social Worker” Website*. In addition to an entirely new look, the Web site is much more interactive. “Social workers need more places on the Internet where they can interface with the public, and the n...

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Mary Ann Quaranta was a dean of Fordham University’s Graduate School of Social Service. Mary Ann Quaranta, former NASW president and previous dean of Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service, died Dec. 16, 2009. She was 82. Quaranta was an NASW Social Work Pioneer® who was known as a gifted educator and administrator, said Nancy Boyd Webb, professor emeritus of Fordham University GSS. According to the school, Quaranta served as dean of the graduate program for 25 years before taking an appointment in 2000 as provost of Marymount College. She served at Marymount until 2004, when she was named special assistant to the...

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A new NASW Web education course, “Promoting Adherence with Cancer Oral Medications: The Social Worker’s Role,” will launch this month. The course, developed by NASW and the National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship, will be available free of charge on the NASW Professional Education and Training Center website. The course continues NASW’s focus on professional education in cancer care and was preceded by “Understanding Cancer” and “Understanding Cancer Caregiving,” both of which are already available on NASW’s Web Ed site. NASW Executive Director Elizabeth J. Clark said medical advan...

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Abortion vs. Health Care I disagree that abortion is health care. We should use our efforts to speak up for the unborn, who have no choice when it comes to determining their future. Barbara Solt’s own ambiguity is clear when she maintains (“Health Care Reform Efforts in Question,” February News) that abortion should not be the first choice for a woman, but then also states it is a humane choice. Right to life is the most pressing civil liberties issue of our time. For those of us who are Judeo-Christian practitioners, one of the basic tenets of our faith is, “Thou shall not kill.” I would ask you also to conside...

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NASW is hosting its second annual social work practice conference this summer. “Social Work’s Critical Role in End of Life Care” will take place Aug. 4 in Boston directly before the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization’s Special Topic Conference 2010, “Developing the Care Continuum: Innovative Models to Meet the Unique Needs of Patients/Families.” “Our goal is to link this conference with the NHPCO event so it will help limit expenses for attendees,” said NASW Executive Director Elizabeth J. Clark. “This conference is timely,” she added, “because it is occurrin...

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NASW has updated its Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA, online policies, forms and online training course. The information can assist social workers who are required to abide by the client privacy policies outlined in the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, said Sherri Morgan, associate counsel for the NASW Legal Defense Fund. As a result of the HITECH amendments, HIPAA standards have been tightened and clarified to reflect needed changes and they list specific notification requirements to clients if there is an unauthorized release of their private health records, speci...

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Whoever said “nothing worthwhile comes easily” might as well have been talking about health care reform. After losing their filibuster-proof majority in the Senate by one vote, congressional Democrats in January all but abandoned efforts to forge a final health care reform bill by merging versions previously passed in the House and Senate, H.R. 3962 and H.R. 3590 respectively. Now that they are down to 59 votes in the Senate (two Independents — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman — caucus with the Democrats), Democratic congressional leaders would need to further consider means of overcom...

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